‘I rejected bribe offers’

Richard Balls | Tuesday, 23 May 2006 Source: EDP24

A glimpse into a violent criminal underworld emerged in a Norfolk courtroom as a man who was severely beaten outside a pub told how he was offered £20,000 to drop the charges he had laid against his assailant.

And when associates of the accused man realised that his victim would not be bribed, they summoned a man known for extreme violence to "lean on" the victim, and drove him in a car to show him where the man lived.

Karl Unsworth, 36, of Freethorpe, near Acle, has already pleaded guilty to assaulting Kim Mullen of Upton, and he and John Brunton, 56, the landlord of the William IV pub, Quebec Road, Norwich, admitted conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Andrew Frain, 41, from Essex, denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but was found guilty by a jury.

Frain, originally from Reading, Berkshire, was well known to police and had a fearsome reputation for violence.

Nicknamed "Nightmare", he had figured prominently in an undercover BBC investigation into the so-called Chelsea Headhunters – the notorious football hooligans – by journalist Donal MacIntyre and as a result received seven years in prison in 2000 for conspiring to commit violent disorder and affray. Fellow hooligan Jason Mariner was jailed for six years.

Their trial was told that they lived for the fun of violence and also heard how they had done their best to disrupt a Bloody Sunday commemorative march in London along with members of Combat 18 and the National Front.

Chillingly, it was this man that associates of Unsworth got in contact with and summoned to Norfolk with the intention to put the frighteners on Mr Mullen. The three men are due to be sentenced today.

Due to Unsworth's guilty plea, details about the assault had never been heard in court, but during a special hearing at Norwich Crown Court yesterday to determine legal issues, the man who fell victim to Unsworth's outburst of violence went in the witness box.

Kim Mullen, 52, a taxi driver, said he had been at home on the evening of January 2, 2005, when his wife took a phone call from their sons Lee and Ricky. They were asking to be picked up and given a lift home from the Kings Head in Acle where there had been some trouble.

As his wife was concerned for them, he left with his other son Danny and drove to the pub car park.

Mr Mullen said that as they pulled in, they saw three guys marching across the car park in the direction of the pub, one of whom was "really noticeable with a tattoo on one of his shoulders".

They walked straight into the pub, and worried for his two sons, Mr Mullen tried to phone them to find out where they were but failed to get hold of them.

"Two guys then came back out and started attacking Danny," he said. "As I went around to help him, I don't remember any more. I was struck by something from behind."

Mr Mullen was treated at the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston for serious injuries that included a split on the top of his head and fractures to his nose, left wrist and his middle finger.

Ricky and Lee Mullen also told about how they were badly beaten after going to the pub car park to meet their father and Danny Mullen testified that he had seen Unsworth swinging "some kind of object in the air in a hitting motion".

The assaults that took place in the pub car park had been sparked by an earlier incident inside the bar during which Unsworth had approached Lee Mullen and a fight had broken out. Unsworth had left the pub, but later returned with two other men.

But following Unsworth's arrest, the man he had so brutally assaulted was contacted and offered money.

"The first offer of money came from John Williams, the landlord of the Kings Head," said Mr Mullen. "I was offered money to drop the charges - £20,000. I got up and walked away. I could not believe he had got himself involved in it."

Unsworth's associates persisted. As Mr Mullen sat enjoying a drink in his local the White Horse Inn some time later, he was approached by the landlord Raymond Norman who said he had been asked by Mr Brunton to find out from Mr Mullen how much money he would accept to drop the charges.

Mr Mullen was "a little fed up" at all this and gave Mr Norman an answer that he hoped would put an end to the approaches.

"What I said to Mr Norman was that the message he should take back to Mr Brunton was that if he gives me the other two names then perhaps we can discuss money."

John Farmer, defending Unsworth, put it to Mr Mullen that he and his son Danny had gone to the pub that night to back up his other boys and "involve himself in violence". But he could not admit that as it would damage the compensation claim he was pursuing for his injuries.

Mr Mullen replied that when they arrived in the pub car park they did not have a compensation claim.

He added firmly and looking across at Unsworth: "It is not about the money. It is about putting him away for so many years that he gets out of everybody's way."

The court also heard how undercover police officers had gone to the William IV pub in Norwich on June 16, 2005, and observed a meeting between Unsworth, Brunton and Frain.

Frain was already there when the two detectives came in and he was then joined by Brunton.

They chatted for about half an hour at which point Unsworth arrived and was introduced to Frain.

All three then left in Brunton's Mercedes and were trailed by police to Upton, where the victim lived.